I was just putting in the links, when I noticed B’Rouser’s linkdump appear just below. Sheesh! Oh well, why not. I’ll take out the one duplication… but make sure you keep scrolling down to his more southern-Vermont oriented piece. There’s enough news for all…

Bush’s FDA has finally, grudgingly agreed to allow Plan B emergency contraception to be available without a prescription – but not to minors. Thankfully, Vermont is a bit more enlightened than the Oval Office crowd. Minors in the Green Mountain State will be able to obtain Plan B without a prescription under a law passed by the State legislature earlier this year. So there, Dubya.

Middlebury and Dartmouth Colleges both made the list of the top 100 LGBT-friendly colleges in the country, according to a new publication from The Advocate. Something to proud of, to be sure.

Speaking of LGBT issues, lesbian mom Cathy Resmer (of 802online) and donor Jules Fishelman discuss their relationship as part of NPR’s Storycorps project. It’s a great exchange (although granted, as such a donor myself, I’m probably more enthusiastic about the piece than most…) Here’s the podcast.

Pluto is now an ex-planet. Read Pluto’s concession speech.

For those of you…(okay, for everyone who reads or writes in this blog, most likely)… concerned that the rest of the Country will sadlle us with pro-war, pro-school prayer, pro-flag-burning-amendment Senator Hillary Clinton as the next Dem pres nominee, the trends are not looking good. According to this compilation of polls over the last year, her belated overtures to the left – such as her decision to campaign for Ned Lamont – may be having an effect. Hopefully this poll will prove more telling (minus the really nasty stuff that seems downright mysoginist).

Finally, I promise I’ll update the DorianGrays this weekend. I’m way behind. As outrageously nasty as Tarrant has gotten, his picture may already be a pile of dust by Monday.

Here’s the format for GMD’s Monday, 12:00 noon online debate between Democratic Lieutenant Governor candidates Rep. John Tracy and Sen. Matt Dunne. As always, it’s subject to some tweaking. As it stands, it doesn’t look like there will be opportunities for questions from viewers, but that *may* not be set in stone depending on how the software looks and how much time the candidates have. This will be a short debate, as myself and the other GMD bloggers working  on this will be on our lunch breaks…

To view, return to this site a few minutes before noon and follow the directions. You will need to enter a user name to view the chat, but without any password (and you will not be able to write into the chat room). Obscene or insulting chat names will filtered and blocked or ejected from the room.

There will be only 9 questions. Approximately 5 will be issue-based. In terms of policy, these guys are nearly indistinguishable, so these questions will attempt to show some daylight between the two without delving into too much minutiae. Another couple questions will be on leadership-slash-character topics. There will be a “philosophy of governance” question, and also a question that will invite each candidate to contrast themselves with the other. For this contrast question, each candidate will be given a 30 second rebuttal. In the case of the other questions, a 30 second rebuttal will only be triggered if a candidate characterizes their opponent in the course of their normally allotted 90 second answer. Candidates will be given a brief opportunity for opening and closing remarks.

These time limits are not hard and fast – that is, there wont be a buzzer if they’re a little off. There will also be a parallel “live blogging thread” on GMD proper for folks who want to make comments.

Jack McCullough and Vermonter will be onsite with each of the candidates to verify they (or their appointed typist, if they don’t type very quickly) are indeed answering the questions themselves and aren’t doing any cutting-and-pasting from crib sheets.

This should be a lot of fun! If it goes as well as I think it will, it opens up the possibility of more (and longer) debates down the road, that may not have to be so “low tech” (at the very least we could graduate to webcams!). If you have any questions/comments, email me via the contact button atop the page.

[Crossposted at What’s the Point?]

There’s a John Updike collection of short stories called Too Far to Go that describes, among other things, the deep sadness of a married couple who are losing or have lost the connection that brought them together.

In the title story (I think – I may have some details wrong, but this is what I remember), there is a deeply melancholic scene that describes the husband lying awake while his wife is sleeping in the same room, but in a separate bed.

It captures the helplessness and vulnerability that can set in during the quiet, lonely half-asleep hours of the night, when it can seem impossible to find the strength within oneself to rise and deal with the things that need to be dealt with.

The hours when one’s bed becomes like a womb, and even the most confident and capable of adults are left to feel like weak and dependent infants, incapable of leaving the warmth and security beneath the covers.

The husband tries to find the energy and strength within himself to simply get up and join his wife, who is only just a few feet away, and begin to rebuild the trust and affection in their marriage.

But, he can’t. It is just too far to go.

I’m very happily married, but for some reason that brief scene and the phrase “too far to go” have always stayed with me. Not in relation to a lack of marital bliss, but to all the other things in my life that can feel occasionally insurmountable.

So, today, while reading the Carpetbagger’s reporting that Dean Webmaster Nicco Mele was signing on to McCain’s probable run for President, it was the first thing I thought of.

More on Mele…

I had the pleasure of working with Nicco on-site at Dean HQ during the primary campaign.

And though I didn’t spend too much time with him, he struck me as a very decent, thoughtful, intelligent human being. His work with EchoDitto and his interest in and support of citizen journalism have been very laudable.

One of the things that most people wouldn’t know is that quite a few of the main Dean web people were not at all sharply partisan about Dean and would often say favorable things about his opponents. And had very nuanced opinions about a number of topics. Meaning, well, they were very reasonable, non-dogmatic people.

But, McCain, Nicco? Really?

Sure, he’s not pure evil, but he could have done so much more in the last five and a half years to help blunt the disaster of the Bush administration.

And given the current condition of America and our place in the world, to me that is entirely unforgivable.

Supporting McCain?

It’s just too far to go, Nicco.

I just heard of this new blog, which I think is also new. They’re doing coverage on the tenth anniversary of Clinton’s welfare “reform” and pushing a more balanced view of the results than we’re seeing in the MSM.

For example, check out this commentary by Rachel Gregg on the 1996 Act:

Look, I hate the 1996 law. It is an extraordinarily mean-spirited bill that was driven almost entirely by political motivation. It put us on record as a nation as saying there are some people in our communities to whom we simply owe nothing; if they fall off the end of the earth, so be it. There is no question that a number of very vulnerable people were hurt by this bill – driven deeper into poverty with no way out – which for me violates a basic principle that government policy must first do whatever it can to protect those who most need our help.

I’ve also read posts about education policy, immigration, employment, health care, and I know there’s a lot more.

Take a trip over to Inclusionist.org and see what other activists are thinking about some of the important policy issues that face us here in Vermont.

Trackin’, shootin video,
I’m trackin’, wherever they may go
Campaigning, by now they gotta know,
we’ll just keep trackin’ on.

George Felix Allen, he called a young man a macaca
And boy did he ever step right in a huge pile of caca
The camera was rolling; the video went up on YouTube
America! George Felix Allen’s a racist boob…

WaPo, and the Daily Show,
Sound bites on the radio,
Countdown with our friend Keith O,
We’ll just keep trackin on….

Most times, a camera’s pointed at you,
Better watch what you say and do,
The Internet’s a series of tubes,
What a strange new trip this is!

-with apologies to the Grateful Dead

Have you noticed, ever since Le Brouhaha Macaca kicked in, we’re hearing endless debates on the karmic implications of trackers following candidates wherever they go and catching every word they say hoping to get lucky like “whatshisname in the yellow shirt”?

  Democrat:”It’s a good thing because it keeps them honest.” 

  Republican:”It’s a bad thing because it makes them act like robots and you never see the real person.”

  At least, that was the way I was hearing it until I checked the Bennington Banner’s site today:

“Unfortunately, taping candidates seems to be a new part of the political process,” said Carolyn Dwyer, campaign manager for state Sen. Peter Welch, who is running for Congress.

  Peter Welch seems to have acquired a tracker. But one of the many ways in which Welch differs from Allen: he doesn’t seem to know exactly who the tracker works for. Martha’s people say it isn’t her:

“This campaign did not hire anyone to tape Sen. Welch, ever,” said Brendan McKenna, spokesman for the Republican candidate. “The Rainville campaign has a policy of not recording any political events of our opponents.”

Brendan’s getting plenty of opportunity to polish this rap:

Professor complained

Two weeks ago, a Community College of Vermont professor complained that a campaign aide for Gov. Jim Douglas misrepresented himself before videotaping an appearance at a community college class in White River Junction.

Rainville denies

Rainville spokesman Brendan McKenna denied any involvement by Rainville’s camp.

He couldn’t say why the videographer allegedly told the Welch campaign he’d been hired by Rainville. “If the cameraman says he was hired by the campaign, he’s lying,” said McKenna.

  Well, DUHH. Of course Martha’s not going to admit to trying for a macaca moment. See, there’s those pesky pledge cards. Brendan’s afraid if he pulled some shit like that he’d get a few in the mail covered with something that sounds like George Allen’s racial slur, and smells worse.

  So if the trackers don’t work for Martha, (assuming the trackers DON’T work for Martha) then who?

NRCC?

The dark forces that sent John McCain or Laura Bush out our way?

Free Republic?

Who cares?

The YouTubing of American politics is reality.

A Buddhist sage once observed, “If you understand the world, the world is the way it is. If, however, you do not understand the world, then the world is the way it is.”

It’s not like push-polling. You have people who will volunteer for this stuff just for a shot at their fifteen minutes.

So the reality of the situation is pretty clear.

You watch your step, or you end up taking an unscheduled trip through the tubes of the internet, and those tubes are not trucks, but intestines.

And you come out covered with macaca.

 Loading ...